As the conversations around metrics and interactions heat up, we are building to a split from the digital metrics that have been “approved” for advertising media buys to a new step towards metrics that focus on relationships and brand interactions. Logic and Emotion brings us a very useful graphic that helps build a picture of what is really going on out there is a post-funnel economy. His graphic was inspired by a report put out by Forrester that calls for a new focus on “Engagement”.

“The marketing funnel is a broken metaphor that overlooks the complexity social media introduces into the buying process…. marketers need a new approach. We propose a new metric, engagement, that includes four components: involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence…. you get a more holistic appreciation of your customers’ actions, recognizing that value comes not just from transactions but also from actions people take to influence others. Once engagement takes hold of marketing, marketing messages will become conversations, and dollars will shift from media buying to customer understanding.”

Digital metrics aren’t much different than traditional metrics. It really just depends on what you are trying to measure. Brand planners have been thinking about “Engagement” metrics for a while now they just didn’t have the quantity of them to choose from and the possibilities are greater with the group mentality that is now measurable online. I think that metrics and measurement should be something that is very clear with your client as you start a program. What are your goals and what are the right metrics to measure them with? If you are dealing with a Media Planner who has been just thinking about Reach and Frequency than the conversation may have to occur at the Brand Level and that is where these “new” metrics will be happily received.

Here are some metrics to measure your campaign. A even more detailed list can be found here.

REACH: Social Media Reach (ex. BuzzLogic), Number of Stories/Posts, Site Traffic , Pageviews, Unique, Visitors , Number of Photos viewed, Videos watched

COMMUNITY INVOLMENT: Links/Trackbacks, Comments, Threads, Registrations, Referrals, Members, Posts , Number of groups, Tags/Ratings/Rank

ENGAGEMENT: Time spent on site, Time Spent within Widget, Contributors, Word count, Completed profiles, Number of Friends

SALES/ROI: Cost per number of engaged prospects, Number of leads, Cost of lead, Lifetime value of customers, Sales